Location

Description

This introductory session is about balancing high levels of financial performance and social impact in designing a sustainable model for:

• a “social purpose business”: – a for-profit business with a social (incl. environmental or ethical) mission. That is, a business focused on making profit while making social impact, or

• a “social enterprise”: – a not-for-profit entity that is primarily focused on making a social (incl. environmental or ethical) impact through commercial activities (revenue generating models).

Following an introduction to different types of socially missioned organizations, this session will highlight how powerful business startup concepts could be applied to designing a social purpose business or social enterprise. Viewing a socially missioned organization much like any other business startup who needs to search for and design a model before it is ready for detailed planning and execution, this session introduces frameworks, tools and practices that guide social entrepreneurs to:

think about how the different parts of their social business/enterprise model will fit together to create, deliver and capture value.

put customer/stakeholder value creation and relationship building at the forefront of their activities in order to ensure desirable mission impact and long-term sustainability.

The expected key take-away from this session is an understanding of the key components and linkages in a social purpose business model or a social enterprise model together with the validation process involved.”

This presentation is intended for those pursuing social entrepreneurship through building a social purpose business or a social enterprise.

Speaker Bio:Simin Foster, Engage Works

Simin Foster is an experienced entrepreneur and business professional with significant achievements. She has launched 3 businesses over the past 10 years following a successful corporate career in engineering, business development and marketing (http://www.linkedin.com/in/siminfoster).

Currently, in parallel with her own entrepreneurial activities, she works with other entrepreneurs in taking their business concept to market and succeed. In addition to mentoring and coaching startup entrepreneurs, she provides consulting services to established business owners in managing and growing their enterprise and increasing profitability.

Two areas of Simin’s interest and work are “social entrepreneurship” and innovating “shared-value business strategies” to create measurable economic values by addressing social concerns. Simin is the founder and a co-organizer of the Ottawa Social Entrepreneurs Meetup Group with 300+ members (http://www.meetup.com/Ottawa-Social-Entrepreneurs).

Over the course her career, Simin has designed and delivered engaging and practical workshops and courses in the areas of entrepreneurship, business development and business management. Simin holds an MBA degree from City University, England, and a PhD degree in Engineering from London University, England.